An Abu Dhabi court has convicted 10 people over a hotel brawl involving Usman Nurmagomedov, Merab Dvalishvili and their teammates, imposing prison terms, fines and deportation orders in a ruling announced Friday. The fight broke out ahead of a Real American Freestyle event, and the case has now put one of the sport’s most public rivalries back in view.
The heaviest punishment went to six members of Team Nurmagomedov, who received six-month prison sentences, fines of 300,000 dirhams, and orders to be deported after serving their terms. Two other people were sentenced to six months in prison for privacy violations after filming the brawl and posting it online, while the court ordered the phones confiscated and the footage deleted. Merab Dvalishvili and a friend were fined 50,000 dirhams for disturbing public security and assaulting others.
The brawl began on Wednesday when Dvalishvili was being interviewed in the lobby of the Yas Hilton. Videos shared online showed Usman Nurmagomedov approaching him with associates and coming in from behind before slapping him. Nurmagomedov was not scheduled to appear on the RAF Abu Dhabi card, but he had travelled to Abu Dhabi to accompany Umar Nurmagomedov.
The court action also explains why the card changed. Event organisers removed Umar Nurmagomedov from the lineup on Friday and replaced him with Saba Lazishvili. Dvalishvili, meanwhile, said on X that he had been released, was healthy and ready to go, and Chad Bronstein said he remained available for his scheduled match with Marlon Moraes.
There is still a split between the punishment and the posture of the man at the center of the fight. Dvalishvili said he hoped everyone would be released and said he would not press charges, even after being fined for the same encounter. That leaves the court’s ruling as a legal end point, but not necessarily an emotional one: six people are headed to prison, two more were punished for spreading the video, and the fighter who was slapped has publicly called for peace instead of retaliation.
The dispute did not start in Abu Dhabi and did not end there. Tensions rose after Dvalishvili defeated Umar Nurmagomedov in a UFC bantamweight title fight in January last year, and the two sides also had a smaller altercation at an RAF event in Georgia in July. Friday’s ruling turned that rivalry into a court case with real penalties, and it leaves Dvalishvili still on the schedule while the rest of the fallout runs through the tribunal.
